CNN Accidentally Commits Truth

Shockingly, CNN, one of the premier Fake News Networks of the Neoliberal age, committed truth the other day. I’m sure it was an oversight but the damage was done and couldn’t be censored in time.

Jake Tapper interviewed Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. Gabbard, a liberal Democrat and Army veteran of Iraq went on a secret fact-finding mission she to Syria and had just returned. While there she interviewed President Assad as well many ordinary people in Aleppo and Damascus.

There are several crucial takeaways from this interview. The first one is that even Tapper acknowledges that the US has been funding the “moderate rebels”. The cat’s out of the bag in other words. The second one is that there are no “moderate rebels”. The fact that Tapper did not question her means that there may be cracks in the official story. Hopefully, this is the case.

Regardless, we have to continue to pray for peace in the Middle East and hope that President Trump can tamp down any false flag operations set by the Deep State in order to continue our misbegotten adventurism there.

Also, pray for Miss Gabbard. In going against the Neoliberal orthodoxy, she’s planting a big fat target on her back.

They’re slowly beginning to understand just how royally they screwed the pooch and how over it is before it even begins. It’s not a question of whether it’s going to move dramatically to the right but how far.

The thing they can’t understand is that classical conservatism had no objection to redistribution of wealth so long as it was hierarchical. They are thinking black and white, like Marx. Fixed systems. They are not smart enough to realize that it is possible to operate on interelated systems which correct each other, even in a unitary, dominant party state. Corporations, MNC’s make their profits, regulations are minimized as are taxes, workers are well paid and the government serves as a sort of union broker to make sure that the middle and lower classes are taken care of and constantly rising with opportunity to continue in ever improving conditions with good pay, benefits, etc., or the opportunity to move into some other work or become part of the investment class by purchasing stock and making the move from worker to capitalist.

It’s a free country. People can do what they want to do.

The trade stuff worries and puzzles them but its not complicated. You just tax imports at a level that compensates for the the fact that they are not produced by American workers paid at healthy wages. You want to pay someone 17 cents an hour? Fine. But sell what they produce in that country, not ours. If you sell here, you will be taxed to the point that you would have reached if you paid a living wage.

It’s not rocket science. Trump is smart, but it was always staring us in the face. It is classical conservatism, the politics of kings/monarchs.

I about fell out of my chair laughing on this one. Senior management in the State Department suddenly resigns. Wonder why?

Let us speculate:

If you read the reports, it appears that they were looking forward to working on the transition after having been critical of Trump during the campaign. I mean, up until the last few days they seem to have felt like they were going to be able to adjust.

Of course, traditionally, all offer their resignations so the president can appoint whomever he wants. The WP seems to be spinning it as they simply could not reconcile themselves to working under the very undiplomatic Trump.

Perhaps.

Or perhaps there is another explanation. Perhaps most of them were on the payrolls of foreign governments and were influencing policy from within to the detriment of American interests and, smelling the coffee, they and their handlers overseas and the Trump Administration thought it best to just clean house, call it a misunderstanding, and move on.

And, of course, there may be investigations later, or not, depending on how honest they were with him when he hit the door.

This woman has no historical perspective. There WERE moderate rebels in March 2011. Assad promised reform and failed to deliver. The people rebelled. His guard took action. The rebels weakened, which created a vacuum. This vacuum allowed terrorists to infiltrate and gain control.

Assad is a weak man. The region is no more stable under him than it was under his father. The Assad family continues to hold onto the majority of the wealth. They care about one thing and one thing only; staying in power.

I believe this woman when she said she didn’t go over there anticipating a meeting with Assad. He sought her out. This is his MO. He looks for people who are easily manipulated so they will go back to wherever they came from and support him.

I truly despise Assad. He can’t keep peace in his country. He can’t control his guard. The only thing he manages to do is continue to exist. I guess for some, that is enough.

No one has a solution for Syria, because no one wants to admit that this tyrant needs to be replaced by an even more vicious tyrant.

I will not pretend to be middle eastern expert, but my understanding of the people of the Middle East is that they only respect power, and only ruled by fear.

Ever since Bush the first’s lack of influence before Iraqi/Kuwait conflict. Bush the second’s
lack of vision, in a Iraq without Saddam and finally Obama’s fairy tale view of the Muslim mind set, all Muslim countries are ripe for revolution and civil wars.

Only Stalin type leaders ,may he rot in Hell, like Saddam, whom Saddam admired can “successfully ” rule without conflict. Of course I despise these type of leaders, but after witnessing what has happened in Syria and Iraq, they were better off with the tyranny they knew than the destruction we now know. Sorry but I neither see hope or anything close to a Democratic Republic, in these war torn countries ,only Kings and tyrants, with the sword only one swing away from their throats.

Yes, Father Pat, we know. You got to speak with Assad. You thought he was a great guy and saw nothing that would suggest that anything was amiss in Syria. Interestingly this was the same conclusion MP said you would reach *before* he sent you to Syria. I told you then and I’m telling you now, you saw only what he wanted you to see.

Let’s look at the 6 conclusions you drew back in the Fall of 2011:

“First, I can only form opinions on what we saw and heard which did not include the alleged ‘hot spots.” I specifically requested to be taken to one of these places, explaining that, as a normal Chicagoan, I am completely devoid of fear. Concerned about safety, however, they politely declined my request.” – These “alleged” hot spots were quite real and turned into a full-scale civil war, something you repeatedly denied on this very blog. You were mistaken, Father Pat. By discouraging you from visiting these sites, they kept you from seeing the truth.

“Second, given the fact Damascus is the capital and the most populous region of Syria, one imagines we would see at least a hint of a revolution if there really were one. We did not.” – You did not see “a hint of a revolution,” because they hid it from you. Clearly, there was a revolution going on.

Third, Christians in Syria are safe and happy. They worship in freedom without oppression. . . Christians in that country are not an oppressed minority, as they are, for example, in Egypt. Muslims in Syria have no political advantage over Christians.” – Christians are only “safe and happy” when they have cushy government jobs and are protected. They have never had any political standing and have always depended on whoever was in charge. Previously, Assad protected them (as he was paid to do). He is still in power. Is he protecting them now? Everybody safe and happy? I’d say not.

“Fourth, the TV reporting on Syria in this country is anything but “fair and balanced.” With a view to correcting this problem, our delegation suggested to President Assad that he begin by inviting one well-trusted television reporter from the United States to sit and talk with him, much as we did. Our recommendation was specific; we named such a reporter, who happens to be Orthodox. The President said he would give it serious consideration.” – Did his “serious consideration” turn into a reality? If he were being up front, he would have no trouble with reporters.

“Fifth, it is my impression (and I speak for myself alone) that the stability of Middle Eastern governments, including the Syrian, depends a great deal on the support of the military. For this reason, it is not unknown for the leaders of such countries to have only a limited authority over their military establishments. If this is the case in Syria, it would explain, at least in part, why President Assad has not been able to stop all violence from the government’s side, even though such violence is diametrically at odds with his own policies.” – They have been quite effective at protecting *him,* which is interesting if he can’t control them.

“Sixth, unless I am dreadfully mistaken, the current Syrian government is in no immediate danger from an internal revolution. There is far more rioting in the United States, and in almost every country of Western Europe, than there is in Syria. Even as I write this, there are more demonstrators camping out on Wall Street (where they voice utter vacuities, at all hours, to the press corps) than there are anywhere in Syria.” – You were *grossly* mistaken. What happened in Syria is NOTHING like the rioting here or what happened on Wallstreet! On a 10 point scale, you rated Detroit, Philadephia and even Disney World as less secure than Syria. Still feel that way?

6 points; wrong on all counts. One could presume your take on Assad was/is equally flawed. Go back and read George’s blog when you first published your piece. My take on the situation proved to be 100% accurate and I didn’t spend a moment with Assad. I wouldn’t want to breathe the same air.

It was not by accident that you were selected and it is not by accident that you walked away with a favorable impression. You were bamboozled and used.

Assad *is* a weak man. Strong men do not allow their countries go down in flames. Just ask Trump.

Assad *is* a bad man. Both he and his father had/have no compunction against killing their own people, even civilians, to stay in power. This is bad in my book.

Not all Syrian Christians share your POV, Father. Assad is too weak to protect them and they are fleeing. Even our own Patriarch talks more about the common love of country than the love of Assad.

600,000 people died in the American “Civil War” to keep the United States together. Assad is simply keeping his country united under the one person who has a track record of allowing the different ethnic/religious groups to live in peace. The effort to overthrow him is the source of the carnage.

Assad’s army indiscriminately targets women and children. That is unforgivable. He controls (through his brother-in-law) 60% of the wealth. The country is not united, Misha! They are always fighting. Every few decades there is a civil war. Ethnic and religious groups don’t live there in peace! They fought before him and they will fight after him. Not sure what you’re smoking these days.

Gail, the fact that Assad is a kleptocrat/strongman is not in dispute. I believe what we are all missing is that the Levantine cultures are not conducive to representative government.

If there’s anything I’ve learned since Francis Fukuyama’s “end of history” nonsense (which even I fell for) back in the 90s, it is that the world is a harsh place and that most non-European cultures are incapable of self-rule.

I realize that this is a harsh assessment and flies in the face of our Wilsonian delusions –a false religion going on for 100 years now–but the fact remains that most of these cultures are content (if not happy) with their tribal affiliations.

My own “eureka” moment regarding the Arab Spring came about 5 years ago. At one of the pharmacies I worked at, two of my techs were American-born Syrians. They were a brother and sister and the girl wore a hijab. They were excellent employees and very Americanized. Their father was from Syria and their mother an American convert. They kept the fast during Ramadan and once, by accident, I went to the office to go retrieve some paper work and the young man was in devout prayer. I excused myself and my estimation of him was enhanced. He prayed privately and not for show.

Anyway, on another day, I just happened to bring up the fact that the Russians were going to go in and support Assad. Hassan (as I’ll call him for our purposes here) went wild with rage. Whereas once I had seen a circumspect, consciencious, all-American teenager, in less than a second I saw real hate. I could easily envision this young Sunni man mass-murdering Alawites should he get the chance. Among the Sunnis of Syria there is a saying: “Christians to Beirut, Alawites to the wall.”

What follows may seem unkind but it is real nonetheless: not all cultures are the same and in the tribal world of the Levant, the tribe that loses is usually wiped out. In such a scheme of things, Assad (an Alawite) has no choice but to defend his people and not worry about our Western sensibilities. It’s sad.

Whether these genetics are defective or not is beside the point, Gail. Personally, I don’t believe that they are defective. According to natural selection, anything that preserves a species (or in human terms a tribe or ethnos) is by definition not defective. It’s just different.

White people aren’t defective because we have less melanin than blacks, it’s an adaptation to better absorb vitamin D from the sun. Same thing with non-democratic polities. The only way that Levantine cultures are at a disadvantage with European ones is in their ability to set up pluralistic, representative governments. But given the fact that Damascus is the oldest, continually inhabited city on earth means that they must have other advantages over Europeans. In other words, life is complicated.

Same thing with the Byzantines. Westerners like to criticize them for their duplicity but at the end of the day, that polity lasted over 1,000 years. Clearly, they were doing something right.

As far as Russia is concerned, the brutal occupation of the Asiatic Tatars left an indelible impression on the Russian psyche. That and hundred-year invasions from the West make Russians look to a strong leader to preserve their land. That they were able to repel much stronger invaders (Swedes, Napoleon, Hitler, etc.) indicates that despite their “Asiatic DNA” they are not without their own strengths.

I view human biodiversity in wonderment and thus don’t believe in a “one size fits all” socio-cultural meme for all nations. I guess at the end of the day, that’s my biggest beef with the Neoconservatives, who beguiled way too many Americans (myself included) into believing in the rightness of Wilsonian democracy-crusaderism.

Studies just don’t bear out your theories, George. Children from these countries who are raised in America (and there have been many) are completely capable of assimilating into our culture. Russian children are no more psychologically impaired by the occupation of Tatars than I am!

You keep mixing up your terms. Biodiversity refers to species. Socio-cultural refers to behavior. Wilsonian democracy-crusaderism refers to ideology. Byzantine refers to a specific place and time, i.e. Roman Empire in the East during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. When used collectively, as you are trying to do, these terms describe absolutely nothing because they have nothing to do with one another.

All modern humans are the subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens. They exhibit various behaviors and ideologies that have nothing to do with their species and have lived in different places in different times where different ideologies were embraced. None of these things makes any group of people incapable of self-rule.

Assad was born in Damascus and educated in the West. I have yet to hear a single story that suggests he was ill-suited to adapting to our culture or our ideology. His wife is as Western as one can get. She was born in London.

I suspect I know many more Syrian people than you do because I am Antiochian. Trust me, George, they are no different than the rest of us. Greed is what separates the good from the bad and that’s a pretty universal phenomenon. The “tribal” mechanism used in the Middle East is the identical model used by the mafia and gangs and other such groups who want to hold onto their power and wealth. Sadly, many feel it is in our country’s best interest to keep the “mafia” in place because we fear the alternative, i.e. the radicalized factions gaining a foothold, who interestingly, ALSO use the “tribal” model to keep people in line. Let’s not make heroes out of these people or make excuses for them. They are greedy and that makes them bad.

Gail, you raise excellent points. I don’t disagree with you in the main but if I may expand on a couple of your points:

1. I agree with the fact that you know more Syrians because you’re in the Antiochian jurisdiction. (I will say though that here in Oklahoma Lebanese are very prominent throughout the state). However are we comparing apples to oranges? The Syrians you know are predominantly Christian. Again, the Lebanese that I know are 3rd and 4th generation, Christian and they are completely assimiliated.

When it comes to Sunni Moslems, we in America are more fortunate than the Europeans in that we take the cream of the crop (H1B visas, hence a high-IQ population). In Europe though, the second and third generation of Maghrebis, Pakistanis, etc. who settle in Manchester, Marseilles, Berlin, etc. regress to the mean and become radicalized. Even in America we had Omar Mateen who was “American” by every measure (birth, accent, social media use) yet he went full Taliban and shot up that gay bar in Orlando.

2. Biodiversity. According to evolutionary biology, the various races of man were traditionally viewed as sub-species. I know this is controversial (and I’m not a Darwinist) but the physiological and genetic differences that exist between the races bespeaks of the fact that geological pressures varied over the biome.

Re Syria, it’s a messy thing. I agree with you. You would think that Assad, who is completely westernized, has an elegant wife and received a medical education in England, would not be a brutal dictator. The question that I have had to answer (and which I did not want to face) is why? I can understand why an unsophisticated tent-dweller like Muammar Khadaffi would rule as a tyrant but why an urbane cosmopolitan like Assad?

The only reason I can think of is that Syria as well as most of the Arab world is still tribal and the primary loyalty of people is to their immediate bloodlines. Justice for individual wrongs are the province of close relations.

Anyway, I’m sure I don’t have the full picture and I really appreciate your insights. Believe me, I’m more than willing to see the other side. (Actually, I hope I’m wrong because otherwise, my realism may in fact be pessimism and I don’t want to go down that route.)

Misha, I know you have a poor view of women, but please don’t give me direction again. You are the LAST person to be telling anyone to “calm down,” given your daily, incessant musings. You’re also having trouble staying on topic. No one is talking about Mexicans.

George, I think I told you why Assad, “who is completely westernized, has an elegant wife and received a medical education in England,” would be a brutal dictator. It’s because he *chooses* to be. He wants to hold onto the wealth. If his people were not kept in poverty, he would have to change his tactics. The tribal thing comes down to who you trust when everyone wants what you have. You trust your family and associates. If the objectives of the Arab Spring, under the guidance of the West, had come to fruition, we would see an interim, representative government (not a democracy) of the various factions that could redistribute the wealth, through naturalization, so they could move toward self-rule. We are SO AFRAID of “these” people because of our own prejudicious, we glorify a brutal dictator because he looks and talks like us, without regard to what he’s done. I think that’s stupid on our part because if Syria had an interim government it would give them some temporary relief and more importantly buy them *hope.* ISIS, et al, would be history because they wouldn’t need them. Most Muslims do not hate Christians. They have been living side by side for millenniums. It’s their love of country that binds them. Many Christians crossed enemy lines at great peril to themselves to bring them food and medical supplies. They’re just *people,* George. Only a small fraction of them are radicalized and that number would shrink if moderate Muslims were given the chance to get their house in order.

Gail, you may be right. My own perspective is probably reactionary but given the history of my people, it’s hard for me to take the longer view or to see the interim as being pacific. I could very well be wrong, a genetic defect I have as someone whose Balkan ancestry causes me to sleep with “one eye open” (as we Greeks say). It’s even possible that I can’t see another perspective when it comes to the clash of civilizations (to borrow Samuel Huntington’s phrase).

Regardless, I very much appreciate you opening up my eyes to another possibility. Keep up the good work.

Did not mean to include the phrase “through naturalization.” The system won’t let you edit what you write when you get this far into a discussion. It’s probably not a good idea not to bounce around blogs while you’re writing because things end up in the wrong place!

These sick vermin actually expect us to believe that they are concerned about African women. They cannot even muster genuine concern for unborn babies in their own countries, much less anyone else’s. Evil, sick servants of the devil.

As to Assad, he’s better than those who oppose him. He’s an Alawi Shiite who has kept the peace in Syria for a long time, following in the footsteps of his father. They are flakey, the Alawis. It took a while for even the Shiites to accept them as a legitimate form of Shiite Islam. Essentially, they are proto-Christians. They simply have replaced Christ in their system with Ali. There is another sect that go full blown, the Ali Ilahis. What they are striving for is to create a fallen expression of Christianity. They are like Nicodemus, very close to the Truth but not all in. Must be unsettling.

Their eschatology concerns “the Lion”, al-Asad, the Twelfth Imam who is in seclusion. There is some correspondence between him and the Mahdi, the rightly guided one. It’s all murky and pregnant with possibilities. They are very bright and wanted to keep their options open in a sea of Arab Islam. This is a sect of Persian/Shiite Islam. The Persians were Zarathustrians, more sophisticated monotheists than their Arab conquerors. They found themselves in a terrible situation and had to do something. Christianity had not yet gotten to them, Islam got to them first. But Islam came from the devil.

So, what to do? Well, create a sleeper cell for the true God. They knew it was not the god of Muhammad. They considered the Arabs unwashed desert rats. Perfect fodder for the devil to play his games.

Gail, this kind of spinning a story is not particularly helpful, frankly. The truth is hard to know, so we frame what we think we see and know in a say that seems to make sense out of a complicated situation. I fear it inevitably falsifies reality. You say there WERE moderate “rebels” in 2011. How do you know that? How many? Who were they? What portion of the population did “they” comprise? What made them “moderate” ? By what standard? Are rebels who resort to violence ever truly “moderate”? Where they Christians? or Mohammedans? What reforms were promised? What was the failure to deliver? Was it total? or partial? was it permanent? or indefinite? Was anyone satisfied with them or the status quo ante? You say “the people” rebelled? All of them? what groups? why? how was this rebellion expressed? What you assert about Assad and his family may be true, but what is the view of those in the Church hierarchy that have had to deal with them and had arrived at a certain modus vivendi before all hell broke lose. Finally, what are the likely alternatives to Assad and his family? Will they necessarily be better? Is it likely they will be? Will the carnage be worth it? Is civil war the way to get there? What is the way that Christ would have us walk?

Lexcaritas, the reason the truth is not hard to know is that hindsight is 20/20. How can you definitively say I am “falsifying reality” when you have so many questions?!

I know about the war because it was widely reported and I paid attention. Others dismissed it, like Father Pat.

It started in Deraa in March 2011. (GOOGLE how many protesters there were.) They were “moderate” in comparison to Al Qaeda and ISIS. The standard is the degree and nature of violence. They weren’t cutting off people’s heads! They were Muslims; not Christians. They rebelled because they felt oppressed. Emboldened by the Arab Spring, they took to the streets. (GOOGLE the reforms they wanted but did not receive.)

Some kids put some anti-Assad graffiti on a wall and Assad’s army tortured and killed them. That’s what lit the match. They fought back. They didn’t have the resources to fight an army which left them vulnerable to radicalized groups who came to them and said, “Let us help you.”

The relationship our then Patriarch and Metropolitan had with Assad is not the same as the relationship our current Patriarch and Metropolitan have with Assad. I suspect our current Patriarchate doesn’t want to further endanger Christians by appearing too friendly with him.

Asking questions like, “was anyone satisfied” with the way things were is irrelevant. The point is, enough people *weren’t* and they wanted things to change.

Assad’s still in power, so there is no “likely alternative.” What’s been proposed is bringing together a group (proportionately) comprised of all religions to run things until an election can be held.

You keep asking relative questions like will something be “better.” Better than what? Was the carnage “worth it?” Worth it to whom?

Assad failed to maintain stability and from the West’s perspective, that is not good. Can he recover from this? Perhaps, if he makes concessions. Will he? Only time will tell.

The problem isn’t Assad. The problem is Sunni Islam. In much of the Middle East, the only political organizations fearless enough to challenge the leaders Western Powers established, encouraged and/or supported have been Islamists. Believing that Allah is on their side and promising to introduce or expand Sunni shariah, they maintain the motivation and the nerve to survive and thrive in that pressure cooker over there. Democratic minded Arabs simply can’t. They aren’t strong enough. They can’t do it in the name of Christianity because Christians are a small minority. They can’t do it in the name of secular humanism – “human rights” like feminist equality, homosexualist rights and abortion – because hardly anyone over there believes in that bs. They have nothing to offer but a system of counting heads. That inspires hardly anyone at all. Really, were it not for the money, “moderate quasi-democratic” forces wouldn’t exist at all. And in fact, their existence is probably an illusion insofar as sincerity is concerned. I mean, they will say anything to get the food and weapons flowing but what manner of life would they advocate if they came to power? No one over there wants American style feminist matriarchy. They certainly won’t vote for it.

The fact is that no one over there will buy what we have been selling unless they are bribed or coerced by force.

I’m not trying to be confrontational at this point, but it should go without saying that very few people in the history of the world from its creation to about 1965 would have freely choosen to live in a feminist matriarchy like we have here in America if they had a say in the matter. Technology, certainly. Economic development, of course. But our social structure?

Sustainability is the elephant in the room. It must be scientifically and precisely accurate science. What sense is doing anything if it cannot be sustained into generation after generation. What we have always had is a quick fix which cannot work in the long run, and it’s only purpose is to make money for the snake oil 1% ers. Is Trump, who is a 1% er even looked at this book, let alone be on the same page with what can be sustained. The 1% er are almost universally snake oil salesmen, and it is obvious, by his Cabinet choices. their continued ruling of the roost is the principle reason he was allowed to win this election. He was bankrupt a few decades ago. Some high rollers set him up again, who he is controlled by. It is doubtful he will do a JFK, and turn on them. He may do some good, but there will be a high price to pay for it.

Misha wrote: “The Persians were Zarathustrians, more sophisticated monotheists than their Arab conquerors. They found themselves in a terrible situation and had to do something. Christianity had not yet gotten to them, Islam got to them first. But Islam came from the devil.”

There is a nice article on Christianity in Iran/Persia. It starts with “According to acts 2:9 in the Acts of the Apostles there were Persians, Parthians and Medes among the very first new Christian converts at Pentecost. Since then there has been a continuous presence of Christians in Iran.”

I have mixed feelings about this kind of stuff and the Texas thing. On the one hand, there is schadenfreude. Muslims have been doing this to Christians since the inception of Islam. Karma’s a bitch.

On the other, there is the rule of law thing. I’m glad our government is not attacking mosques. As to private citizens, I can only say that I don’t encourage it. It is dangerous and illegal. Islam is a cancer and it is an understandable reaction to it. The cancer can be cured by conversion, contained and/or rolled back politically wherever it is, and attacked when it threatens to grow.

It is important that the government respect the rule of law and encourage such respect from its citizenry.

Hell hath frozen over. Alan Dershowitz is defending the firing of the acting Attorney General. He is one of the few relatively honest liberals left, generally speaking. I disagree with him on policy matters, but he does have a conscience.

Trump won the election, he’s in charge. It’s like the joke about the two bulls:

On a hillside overlooking a pasture full of cows, baby bull comes up to papa bull: “Why don’t we run down there and screw one of those cows, daddy?” Papa bull replies to baby bull, “I have a better idea, son; why don’t we walk down there and screw them all?”

There are two kinds of pride – self-esteem and arrogance. Self-esteem is good, arrogance is a passion to be overcome. One can only act as a bull in a china shop so long without crossing a line into true arrogance and risking ones soul.

Yeah, I don’t see why he can’t advocate blasting through the filibuster on the Supreme Court nominee, but he needs to show them that he has a sense of restraint and pull Bannon back from being a constant presence. That is not to say he needs to throw him under the bus, just make it clear who’s in charge and get him under control if he’s not.

Integrity=Adherence to moral and ethical principles;soundness of moral character;honesty-(Dictionary.com)
Conscience=The inner sense of what is right or wrong in one’s conduct, or motives-(Dictionary.com)

Great attorney if your into porn, killing your wife, and soliciting sex from minors.

Alan Dershowitz has integrity and a conscience? Not in my book. Honest? Depends whom your asking? Personally I find the sight of him, and all those other attorneys , that let OJ walk, revolting.

This would be an excellent step in the right direction. It could, with the stroke of a pen, effectively castrate the feminist matriarchy plantation we have at present. To guarantee a basic income to each citizen would destroy the current system that redistributes wealth through unwed mothers. It would be brilliant.

Look for this region to heat up again. We supported the wrong side in the 1990’s. I might be tempted to actually feel sorry for the Bosniaks and Kosovars if I didn’t know what had been done to Serbs. Russia’s fueling it and Trump ain’t about to stop it.

It will take him a while to get to feminism. He has bigger fish to fry first. But it’s coming. He definitely has the right attitude with the whole Megan Kelley thing and his early request for a list of “feminist equality” programs and efforts underway.

Слава Богу!
Слава Путину!
Слава Трампу!
Слава Победе!

PS: And of course, our dear friend the heresiarch Pope Francis (not to be confused with the heresiarch Patriarch Bartholomew) reared his ugly head recently:

One must distinguish between the Antichrist and antichrists. Any given pope at any given time is an antichrist (but not necessarily The Antichrist). This one more so than his immediate predecessors.

So much for ecumenism. Have you seen the Anglicans in England debating gay marriage?

If there is any good ecumenism, it is a non-theological cooperation between Orthodox and evangelical/fundamentalist Christians on social issues. There’s nothing to discuss with Rome anymore, if there ever was. Some of the Traditio people and St. Pius X types are perhaps closer to the truth in some ways, but they are also more likely to be resolutely Papist and anti-conciliar.

Treat Papism as a mission field, as if they were the pagan Norse or animist Africa. Gnostic Arianism is not really Christianity at all.

McCain is a hot headed sore loser, and the leader of the republican party most want no part of anymore, except the old leaches that are sucking every last drop to the very end, hoping their Golden Goose McCain can get President Trump impeached, and get back to business as usual. The jig is up, and the screams of the defeated bring joy to my heart, as they fade away. Good riddance!

Wow, George, that’s one of the most disturbing articles I’ve read lately. We Orthodox in the West are used to being ignored by the larger culture, and here’s a story of a Greek-American boy who abandons his Orthodox faith and is now the most senior Westerner in ISIS. How sad and tragic. His 4 kids have no father, his parents apparently disown him. Is it hardness if heart or the way they cope? Not judging them, it’s just so sad. The psychologist would say this young man is continually searching in the wrong places for the nurturing and affirmation he needed as a kid from his father.

If only the prayers of St Nectarios and St Kosmas Aitolos could reach this young man. How he has been deluded by the evil one, and he is doing the evil one’s work. Even if he were to have an epiphany and renounce Islam, he’d spend the rest of his life in prison.

I was surprised to see this in NYT. It’s actually somewhat balanced. RT and Sputnik (“traveling companion”) are interesting phenomena. As an Orthodox Christian, Russian-American, I see BBC, CNN and NYT as propaganda outlets. But I don’t really distinguish between a “propaganda outlet” and real newspaper or real journalism. The tree is known by its fruit. We are dealing with human beings, within each of whom the line of good and evil lies, spinning stories from facts, opinions and sometimes from thin air. It’s all a mix with greater or lesser concentrations of factual reality in the product.

You just have to sift.

Those of us who have been out and about for awhile and understand the proclivities, sources and methods of the principal actors can do this without too much difficulty to “get to the bottom”, if there is one, of a matter. We may not know the ultimate truth of a matter, but we know as much if not more than most anybody else offering their opinions in public.

And really, how much does it matter who actually shot Kennedy? He’s dead whoever dunnit.

What is actually more important are the real world, real time effects of “whatever happened in the Oval Office” on such and such date. Reality is fabric, you can find the rest of the table by locating one corner.

George MichalopulosAug 17, 7:03 PM Are you accusing me of being in favor of genocide? –

Nate TrostAug 17, 5:47 PM We apparently disagree that opposing genocide is itself hateful. Or that Trump assigned blame where it belonged. What a surprise. And considering this blog is... –

George MichalopulosAug 17, 4:43 PM I'm not praising the neo-nazis. Some of them were armed and spoiling for a fight. Know what? Trump condemned them by name. But they had... –

George MichalopulosAug 17, 4:40 PM I must disagree, Nate. Trump blamed all sides for the hate. You can't tell me that Antifa/BLM isn't a hate group. If you do then... –

George MichalopulosAug 17, 4:38 PM Steve, I imagine I'm much older than you but I actually remember segregated schools. Black children actually learned in them. Otherwise, there wouldn't have been... –

George MichalopulosAug 17, 4:28 PM Thank you, I hope the Good Lord does help me. And you as well. –

George MichalopulosAug 17, 4:28 PM Bravo Mike! I for one am tired of the supposed taint that Christians are supposed to bear forever for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was... –